Thursday, January 31, 2008

More J-tube

The opera blogosphere is a little bit of a La DiDo lovefest right now and...I'm kind of fine with that. Listen, if you like this following clip and it comes out on DVD, please do the right thing, Spike Lee, and buy it. Because folks gotta make a living, and youtube is great but shouldn't stop that from happening. Anyway, without further ado, here is Joyce DiDonato managing to look happy and tiara-worthy while petting NIGHTMARISH GIANT HUMANOID MICE in a costume the word "shmatte" was invented for. Wait, one piece of further ado: if the timing on this is such as I understand it to be, she's singing this through a nasty sore throat. I mean jeez.

I've always imagined that pair of descending 2 octave runs to be a real terror.

A commenter on another clip says "Pero canta de p*** madre" (right before using the crazyhead vosotros form...it's like if "y'all" had its own separate verb forms) which means, literally, well nevermind, but it's a compliment even though it doesn't sound like one.

7 comments:

Anonymous
said...

The woman is totally awesome. There is supposed to be a DVD coming of this production, and I'll be first in line. Is that JDF in the fluffy white wig? They are such a cute (onstage) couple. Anyway, I wish Ms. Donato would do more opera stateside! She's left some teasers as to her future schedule on her website.

That's some sensational singing. Although my understanding from her blog (which I've only just discovered) is that the DVD was in the can BEFORE the nasty throat infection hit? Whichever, I can't think of where I've heard it sung better.

I suppose if you ever actually told people what they were watching (you never do) it would compromise the exclusivity of opera-queendom. (Oh fine, I figured it out sooner or later but I could have sworn she was singing Arsace in Semiramide for the first minute and that made the mice seem all the more incongruous.)

ignoramus: frankly, I'm just not a detail-oriented person, as they say n job interviews, but if you'd like to take it as a personal slight or a sign of what a dick I am, knock yourself out--not much I can do to stop you.